Infants are required to be fed very frequently with a small amount of milk such as breast milk or infant formula, and therefore many clean bottles shall be needed. In order to minimize a chance that a baby can be infected by bacteria, the bottle is often washed and sterilized with boiling water or steam before it is again used. Such activities of washing and sterilizing bottles are extra work for parents who are already tired and do not have enough sleep. Therefore, it would be advantageous to have a bottle or drinking device that is pre-sterilized before use and can be disposed after use.
Similarly, young children like to drink beverages or milk frequently during the day. Thus, multiple clean drinking devices, such as those commonly known as “sippy cups”, shall be needed during a course of a day. When a family with young children is on a road trip, it is not convenient and sanitary to wash their children's sippy cups at public rest rooms or at rest areas. Therefore, there is a need in the art for a disposable drinking device to provide convenience and cleanliness and to free the parents from washing. Furthermore, it would be even more convenient if a disposable drinking device can be easily converted to a reusable drinking device whenever the parents wish to do so. This would eliminate the need for the parent to buy refill containers/lids right away after they run out of disposable containers/lids as the young children can use a reusable drinking device instead.
Therefore, it is desirable to provide a drinking device that can be easily and conveniently used as either a disposable drinking device or a reusable drinking device. Further, there is a need in the art to make a disposable drinking device affordable.
It is widely acknowledged that young children can learn at early age before they can express themselves. Learning can be dramatically enhanced when a child is visually and repeatedly exposed to alphanumeric characters, such as the letters of the alphabet and numbers. The alphabet and numbers are the basis for a child's development of reading and math skills in later years. Learning apparatus and toys to assist in teaching the letters of the alphabet and numbers have always been of great interest. For example, cubes or blocks with letters and numbers on the various sides thereof, are toys with learning emphasis.
Traditionally, spill-resistant drinking devices for children are typically used to help a child develop the fine motor skills needed to drink from a cup without spilling. At present, sippy cups have not been utilized as a tool to provide any other kind of learning other than being a feeding or drinking tool for children. Of course, commercial available sippy cups have various popular cartoon characters printed on the cups. Popular cartoon characters are only meant to increase a child's desire for the cups and to persuade a purchase decision if a particular cartoon character on the cups is a child's beloved character. The cartoon characters alone are not intended and do not provide learning of any kind to a child.
Traditionally, paper cup or plastic cup for holding hot or cold beverages has not been utilized as a tool to provide learning of any kind. Of course, commercial available paper and plastic cups may have various prints or logos on them. These prints or logos are meant for advertisement or for brand identification or for visual interest. Prints or logos alone are not intended and do not provide learning of any kind.
Therefore, it would be desirable to provide a disposable drinking device with a learning arrangement that may be different from sippy cup to sippy cup. The present invention uses a repetitive visual stimulation technique by displaying changeable symbols on a disposable sippy cup, which provides a convenient, fun and attractive mean for early childhood learning.